India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday allocated additional Rs 40,000 crore for MGNREGA scheme to help migrants. The step will help the workers, who have returned to their home states, find livelihoods.

The minister announced the additional Rs 40,000 crore funds while presenting the final set of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Rs 20-lakh crore package to bring economic reforms.

What are highlights of the Centre’s announcement? Here are the 6 major points that you must know.

With additional Rs 40,000 crore for MGNREGA, the sector got 65 per cent boost this fiscal. The step will help migrants workers find jobs and earn livelihoods. The total allocation to MGNREGA now reaches to Rs 1.01 lakh crore from the previous Rs 61,5000 crore.

The total number of working days for migrants now reached to 300 man-days. States can enjoy their autonomy in providing jobs to migrant laborers, the Centre said.

The minister also announced Covid-19 crisis relief measures for companies from insolvency and bankruptcy provisions code.

The Centre raised the borrowing limit for states to 5 per cent of the GDP.

The Indian government also announced that there will be total 4 PSUs in strategic sectors. Privatization system will come into existence for the state-owned companies in several other sectors, the minister informed. The new system is a part of the public sector enterprises policy to ensure economic reforms in central public sector enterprises.

The Centre said it will invest in health institutions to improve various infrastructures like strengthening public health laboratories in all districts or blocks to deal with pandemics. All districts will also have infection disease centres, the minister added.

Key points of India’s five-tranche economic reforms

The FM has announced initiating total 54 measures to boost the economy amid Covid-19 crisis. Of them, 30 involved various policy reforms, while the rest dealt with expenditure from the central fund and liquidity support.

Along with the steps by RBI, the overall India’s stimulus package worth around Rs 20.97 lakh crore, claimed the government.

In the first tranche, the government redefined the MSMEs, the heart of the industrial ecosystem. Total Rs 5494550 crore was spent in this segment.

The second tranche witnessed allocation of Rs 310,000 solely for support to migrant workers.

The Centre allocated a sum of Rs 1,50,000 for development of animal husbandry, fisheries and other such allied sectors.

The fourth and fifth tranches saw allocation of Rs 48, 100 crore with focus on aggressive promotion of the old reforms. Creating jobs for people belonging to lower and lower-middle class strata was an important part of the fourth tranche of measures.

India’s Covid-19 crisis so far

With around 97,000 cases, India turned out to be one of the worst-hit countries across the world. India even surpassed China total infection tally recently, topping the most Covid-hit nations in Asia. So far, 3029 people have died owing to coronavirus.

However, the recovery rate of India is much better compared to any country in the globe. Altogether 36,000 people have defeated the highly contagious virus and declared as “fully recovered”. The experts warned that cases might peak in the following months of June or July. Therefore, enhanced measures are being taken up across the country.